


See You

by chanwooya (sinoshi)



Category: UP10TION
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, M/M, idk if this is considered a meet cute but, it's cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinoshi/pseuds/chanwooya
Summary: Seon Yein is a baker, and Go Minsoo is a cafe manager.Yein starts baking every 3 AM. Meanwhile, Minsoo finishes closing his cafe at 3 AM.Yein closes his bakery at 8 PM. Meanwhile, Minsoo opens his cafe at 8 PM.They only ever meet during those two times, and they only ever share a short greeting—but a small change in Yein's routine suddenly kick-starts their relationship into something more.
Relationships: Go Minsoo | Kogyeol/Seon Yein | Sunyoul, background hwanxiao and weishin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 30





	See You

**Author's Note:**

> i must have seen this prompt on tumblr or something but i really can't remember... it's been sitting in my notes for quite a while now LOL.
> 
> ye i def thought too long on that summary honestly idk and idc—nobody's going to read this anyways... kogyoul is a dead ship... but i hope you enjoy my unbeta'd, mostly unedited, 14k word vomit?!

Seon Yein is a baker.

Here is a day in the life of Seon Yein: Yein starts his day early. He wakes up at 2 in the morning, and washes his face. He changes into his Baking Outfit, and gathers all the stuff he wants to bring to the bakery today from his kitchen. His sourdough starter babies (5 year old Tenney, and 1 year old Youl) which he would never, EVER leave at the bakery for various safety reasons; and his breakfast (leftover dough from yesterday’s batch that he’d later bake together with the other breads).

By 2:30, he should be ready to go, and by 3, he should be arriving at his bakery.

His bakery’s a small little shop, many blocks away from his apartment building. Next to it is a cafe that opens after his shop closes, and closes right as Yein arrives at the bakery. Today, too, at 3 AM, he sees the cafe next door’s manager, Go Minsoo, cleaning up his cafe. Lifting chairs, sweeping, taking out the trash, pulling down the shutter.

This is Yein’s favorite part of his day. When he gets out of his car to open the bakery, and Go Minsoo has just locked the doors to his cafe and is getting off work.

“Hello,” Yein always says with a small smile, and Minsoo would always smile back and say hello, as well. And then that’s it. Yein goes inside the bakery, and Minsoo gets in his car.

Yein starts work. He turns on all the lights, preheats his ovens, starts preparing all the dough, starts baking, and before he knows it, it’s 6 AM and it’s time to open. He takes a 5 minute break to eat his breakfast. And then at 6:15, his first customer would usually come in—Noh Sooil, an office worker who works just down the street and always gets the same thing every morning: two chocolate croissants and a cheesy garlic bread (he says it’s for lunch).

His first part time worker, Gyujin, comes in at 7, just when it starts to get busy. He works until 12, when the second part time worker, Hwanhee, would come in. Yein gets to take his lunch break during the shift change, when Gyujin’s finishing up his shift and Hwanhee’s just starting his. It’s about a 10 minute window that really only lets Yein heat up the convenience store food he always asks either Gyujin or Hwanhee to bring for him.

Hwanhee only works until 4 PM. The last part time worker, Dongyeol, comes in at just a little before 4, and always forces Yein to take a break during that time so he can work with Hwanhee (because Dongyeol has a tiny crush on Hwanhee). Dongyeol stays until closing time—7:30 PM, sometimes 7 if they run out of stuff—and helps Yein close up the store and go through inventory and restocking ingredients for Yein to bake the next morning.

By 8, he’ll be waving Dongyeol home, and then, he’ll be seeing the cafe next door’s manager, Minsoo, again.

This is Yein’s second favorite part of his day. Minsoo would be standing outside his cafe and writing on the chalkboard “OPEN MIC 8PM - 1 AM”, and Yein would be closing his shop. Yein would say, again, “hello,” and Minsoo would say it back to him.

They never go beyond that, but these two interactions are what gets Yein through his long days. Minsoo’s good-looking and kind, and Yein would really love to get to know him more, but they live on different times—Yein lives the day, and Minsoo lives the night. They only ever meet during the two set times where they both don’t have time to say anything more than a simple “hello,” and that’s it.

Yein would get some dinner on his way home, and if he does, it’ll be around 9:30 by the time he gets home. If he doesn’t, he’ll already be home by 9. Maybe even 8:30. He’ll take a shower, do some chores, and by 10, he’s already asleep.

Sundays are his off days. The bakery is closed, and he gets the whole day to sleep in and do things for himself, things that aren’t baking, but sometimes he can’t help himself—like today.

It’s 2 PM and he’s bored out of his mind. He’d done all his house chores and he wants nothing more than to just… Do something productive. So he grabs his keys and drives to the bakery, wanting to mess around and invent a new recipe or something.

It’s always odd parking his car during the day like this. It’s not too often that he decides to go to the bakery during his off days—there are days where all he wants to do is close the bakery for 4 days and let Gyujin or Hwanhee or Dongyeol run it while he runs away to the Maldives, or something. He gets out of his car, and he sees Go Minsoo.

It’s also odd seeing Minsoo during the day. They always see each other in the dark of night—either 3 AM or 8 PM—and it’s the very few, very rare times that Yein gets to see Minsoo outside like this, during the day. Minsoo seems surprised when he sees Yein get out of his car, but he gives Yein a sweet smile.

“Yein-ssi,” Minsoo greets. Yein’s surprised to hear his name come out of Minsoo’s mouth—they really, really never say anything other than “hello.” The last time they had an actual conversation was probably when Minsoo first opened his cafe, and he’d gone to introduce himself to Yein.

“Oh, Minsoo-ssi,” Yein greets back. He walks up to Minsoo, because it seems like Minsoo has something to say.

“I didn’t expect to see you here today,” Minsoo grins a wide, toothy smile, and his face scrunches up. Yein’s blushing hard, but he tells himself it’s because the sun is particularly scorching hot today.

Yein knows the cafe opens for lunch, but he never sees Minsoo during these times because he’s always busy working inside. Hwanhee would say he saw Minsoo whenever he’s clocking in, or he’d say he saw Minsoo’s employee on his way in.

All three of his part time workers always tell Yein to go and try the food at Minsoo’s cafe, because it’s good, but most of the time, Yein’s too tired for dinner, or he can’t be bothered to go anywhere near his bakery for lunch every Sunday. It reminds him too much of his work (and how he doesn’t have a life because of it).

“Yeah, I was bored,” Yein scratches the back of his head awkwardly. He’d planned on coming in and messing around a little, bake some stuff, but now that Minsoo’s here, maybe he should try lunch. “Are you closing?”

“Oh, no,” Minsoo laughs, shaking his head. He raises up his cup of iced americano with one hand, and his phone with his other. “I’m just taking a break and letting Changhyun handle stuff inside.”

“Oh, I see,” Yein nods. “Can I come in for lunch?”

Minsoo grins, wide and happy. “Sure! Come in!”

The interior of Minsoo’s cafe is different from what Yein expected. It’s all bright, with light brown colored walls and pots of flowers on shelves here and there. The tables are white and the chairs are wooden. The counter is cream colored and the lighting is just right—warm yellow, and Yein can’t imagine what it would look like at night because this cafe just screams… Brunch. It’s a brunch cafe.

Minsoo leads him to a table by the window. It’s nice and bright, but not too bright. The sun’s not faced this way, and the cream curtain is covering enough sunlight that it’s not too hot. It’s perfect.

“I’ll get you the menu,” Minsoo says as Yein sits down, and Yein takes a good look around the cafe (after he stares at Minsoo’s backside as he walks away towards the counter). There’s one other worker on the counter—Yein assumes it’s a part time worker, or the Changhyun Minsoo was talking about—and a couple other customers. It’s a little bit bigger than the bakery, but then again, this is the corner of the block.

Minsoo comes back with the menu, and smiles brightly. “I hope you like our food,” he says.

Yein laughs. “Any recommendations?”

“Hmm,” Minsoo hums, and takes the menu from Yein’s hands, flipping it a couple of pages before turning it around to show Yein. “Personally, I think this is our chef Changhyun’s best dish! It’s just a simple pasta dish, but I promise you it’s different!”

It’s just a mac and cheese, but Yein thinks, fuck it, if they can’t make  _ this _ taste good then anything else on the menu is probably bad, so he thinks of it as a test. He orders a strawberry smoothie to go along with it, and then Minsoo’s off with his order.

Yein finds out Minsoo’s not only the manager, but he’s also the barista and sometimes he helps Changhyun cook when things get busy. Changhyun’s the chef. He also finds out the person behind the counter is the owner, Jinhyuk. They have part time workers, but they only work the night shift and the first two hours of the lunch shift, when it’s the busiest. Minsoo tells Yein all of this after he gives him his strawberry smoothie (with whipped cream and strawberries and macarons on top of it, but Yein refrains from commenting about the texture and taste of the macaron) and his pasta, and sits down in front of Yein to chat.

“So what about you?” Minsoo asks with wide eyes. “I also barely get the chance to go to your bakery.”

“Oh, it’s nothing much,” Yein scratches the back of his head, smiling shyly. “Honestly, it’s not as busy as your cafe. I just sell baked goods.”

“It’s always packed with people, though,” Minsoo smiles. “I always see your part time workers! Sometimes they come here for open mic night.”

“I know,” Yein smiles. “They always tell me all about it. Wouldn’t stop raving about your food.”

Minsoo hums. “Maybe I should come by too, sometimes.”

“You should,” Yein replies with a nod.

—

True to his word, Minsoo comes to visit that next Tuesday.

The bell above the door jingles softly. He comes right at the time when Hwanhee and Dongyeol usually mess around behind the counter (before Hwanhee goes home and Dongyeol officially clocks in) while Yein sits and scolds them, so it’s almost comical when Hwanhee and Dongyeol immediately straighten up and put on their biggest smiles as soon as the door jingles.

“It’s Minsoo hyung!” Dongyeol excitedly says.

“Hyung!” Hwanhee almost jumps up, grinning widely. Yein’s a little taken aback because both Hwanhee and Dongyeol seem to be very close with Minsoo—even calling him hyung.

Minsoo, in a black t-shirt, black jeans, and slicked back blonde hair, looks like an angel. The light coming in behind him is making Yein squint, but even then, he’s still handsome.

“Oh, Dongyeol, Hwanhee!” Minsoo grins. “Where’s Yein-ssi?”

Both Hwanhee and Dongyeol immediately look over to where Yein’s sitting behind the counter. He’s hidden behind the cake display case, and Minsoo comes up to the counter and peeks over it.

“Hi!” Minsoo waves at him, and Yein immediately stands up.

“Oh, hi…” He laughs nervously. “I didn’t think you’d really come!”

“Well,” Minsoo laughs. “I wanted a snack and wasn’t feeling like driving all the way to another place, so I thought I’d drop by like I said I would!”

“Oh, hyung!” Hwanhee excitedly says. “You should try Yein hyung’s strawberry macarons!”

Dongyeol nods in agreement, and Yein just nervously smiles. Minsoo looks at the display case in front of him that has the cheesecakes, the macarons, the fruit tarts, the choux pastries, all that stuff. He looks excited, like a little kid, before looking up at Yein, and asking,

“Well, what does the pastry chef recommend here?”

“Ooh,” Dongyeol lets out an impressed noise at Minsoo’s question. “Hyung! Tell him to try the strawberry macaron!”

“What is it with you guys and the strawberry macarons,” Yein huffs. “But yes, you should try it.”

“Really? Then I’ll have that and a croissant,” Minsoo takes his wallet out.

“Anything to drink?” Dongyeol goes through his usual cashier lines—anything to drink, do you want this to go, any point cards, stamp cards, et cetera—and then Hwanhee’s handing over Minsoo’s order. A strawberry macaron, a croissant, and an iced americano.

“Hope you like it,” Yein shyly says from where he’s still standing behind the display case, as Minsoo receives his stuff from Hwanhee.

“I’m sure I will,” Minsoo smiles and holds his bag of pastries up. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Sure,” Yein nods, and then he’s watching Minsoo’s backside as he walks out of the bakery and disappears.

“‘I’ll see you tonight?’” Dongyeol scoffs, repeating what Minsoo said while looking at Yein in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Hwanhee lets out a whistle. “And that’s my cue to clock out.”

Yein doesn’t notice his cheeks heating up. He’s blushing really, really hard, and of course, Hwanhee and Dongyeol aren’t going to let it pass—it’s funny. It’s funny, and it’s also the first time Yein has been like this towards anyone in front of Hwanhee and Dongyeol.

“You definitely have a crush on him, hyung,” Hwanhee pats Yein’s shoulder as he walks past Yein towards the back room.

“Oh, you definitely do,” Dongyeol laughs in agreement. “Hyung! You’re blushing!”

Yein puts his hands on his cheeks and frowns. “I’m not, and I don’t have a crush on him!”

“Sure you don’t,” Dongyeol rolls his eyes. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be reacting like this and talking to him in a shy voice, right?”

Yein wants to disappear into the ground. Maybe he does have a crush on Go Minsoo, so what? But he’ll never say this out loud to either Hwanhee or Dongyeol. It’s bad enough that he gets teased like this without admitting anything—he can’t imagine what they’ll do if he admits it out loud. So he just frowns and sits back down in his chair.

But a crush sounds good. He hasn’t had this much excitement in his life since culinary school. Maybe it’s time to change things up.

—

Yein won’t lie—he’s waiting for Minsoo.

After waving Dongyeol off, who immediately runs off on his motorcycle (God knows when he learned how to ride that, Yein would rather not see Dongyeol ride it because it gives him a mild heart attack every single time), Yein stands in front of his shop for a while. He looks to the cafe next door and sees Minsoo sweeping his cafe alone. Yein contemplates waiting until Minsoo’s finished sweeping—because his next step is to take out the chalkboard—but he thinks, well, maybe not tonight. But he promised to see Minsoo tonight, so what he does is he peeks inside the cafe.

Someone who Yein assumes is a part time worker notices him peeking from the window, and then Minsoo’s looking at him as well. Minsoo immediately smiles—Yein’s heart does three flips—and hands over the broom to the part time worker. He walks outside, towards where Yein’s standing by the door.

“Oh, is it 8 already?” He checks his watch, and sure enough, it says 8. “I started late today. Our part time worker over there—Jinwook hyung—was kind of late. He had to put his daughter to sleep first.”

“Oh,” Yein nods. “That’s fine. I, uh, I just wanted to see. What’s up.”

“Oh, just,” Minsoo shrugs, looking inside. “Sweeping. And then we’re open. Do you wanna come inside?”

Yein is tempted to say yes. He really, really is. But he’s tired, and he has to sleep early so that he can wake up tomorrow morning and start baking at 3 AM like he usually does. He’ll see Minsoo then, but he can’t help the feeling of disappointment and sadness in his heart when he realizes he has to turn Minsoo down.

“Sorry,” Yein says, voice heavy and small. He’s looking down at his feet nervously. “I have to get up early tomorrow.”

“Right!” Minsoo says, as if he just remembered the fact, but he also looks sad. He offers Yein a smile, though. “I forgot about that. Guess I’ll see you this morning?”

“Yeah,” Yein nods. “Sure.”

Minsoo waves, and so does Yein, before Yein steps backwards and heads towards his car. He stops in front of his car door and looks back, only to see Minsoo still waiting in front of the cafe, looking at him. Yein smiles, waving one last time, before hopping in his car.

For the first time in a long, long while, he really can’t wait to wake up early that morning.

—

The next morning, Yein arrives, like usual, and Minsoo is there, like usual. He’s laughing with the part time worker—Jinwook—and pulling down their cafe’s window shutter. Yein doesn’t know how to say hi because it looks like they’re deep in their conversation, so he just starts unlocking his own window shutters. Eventually, the loud sound from pulling up the shutter grabs Minsoo and Jinwook’s attention.

“Hey!” Minsoo brightly says. Yein looks over and smiles back. “Good morning!”

“Good morning to you, too!” Yein replies.

“Need help?” Minsoo asks, and Yein shakes his head.

“No, you’re not even done with your cafe yet,” Yein laughs. “Your part time worker might feel sad if you come help me.”

“Jinwook hyung? He’ll be fine,” Minsoo waves it off, and then looks back at Jinwook, who winks at them before continuing to pull the last window shutter down. “Besides, we were almost done.”

Yein thinks about it for a while. Should he let Minsoo help? Then again, Minsoo probably only meant help in pulling the shutters up, so he says yes.

“Sure, why not, then,” Yein shrugs, and Minsoo quickly gets to work.

Jinwook says goodbye to them after he finishes closing up the cafe, but Minsoo doesn’t leave—he stays and helps Yein open the bakery. He doesn’t leave even after Yein’s got all the shutters open and the door unlocked, and he doesn’t leave after Yein’s got all the lights on and starts turning on the ovens. Instead, Minsoo stands in the kitchen, looking around in awe.

“Wow,” he says. Yein only smiles shyly as he takes out his big bag of flour.

“Wow what?”

“So you’re… Gonna bake everything on your own?” Minsoo looks shocked—his eyes are wide as he looks at the ingredients Yein has pulled out.

“Of course,” Yein nods. “I bake everything by myself.”

“Wow,” Minsoo repeats. “That’s so amazing.”

“It’s nothing much,” Yein shrugs.

“What? I could never wake up this early and bake as much stuff as you do, and then run the whole shop too. I wonder how you do it.”

Yein sighs. “Well, it’s my baby. I’d do anything for it.”

Minsoo watches Yein measure his ingredients for a while, before looking around the kitchen, as if looking for something. Yein notices and pulls a chair, and puts it right in front of his work surface. “Minsoo-ssi, are you tired?”

“Oh, no,” Minsoo shakes his head. Yein points at the chair.

“You can sit here.”

Minsoo sits on the chair, and his eyes follow Yein as he moves around the kitchen. Just like a kid. Yein doesn’t know why he’s still here, but he doesn’t want to kick him out either—he’ll never admit this, but he actually enjoys Minsoo’s company.

Thing is, Yein likes to hum songs while working. It gets too quiet sometimes, so he puts on a song and sings along. When Yein starts humming, Minsoo giggles. Yein stops and looks at him. “What?”

“You’re cute,” Minsoo says. Yein blushes.

“Wow,” Yein nervously laughs. “Thank you? You… You’re cute too.”

Minsoo laughs loudly, his face scrunching up, and then he’s covering it with his hands. Yein feels a little sad that Minsoo’s not showing his cute laughing face. “I’m not, but thank you, Yein-ssi.”

Yein hasn’t had anyone with him during his morning routines since… Well, since the bakery opened, really. Gyujin only comes in after the shop’s open. He doesn’t really ask anyone to come in early to help him or anything—he’s not the type to actively seek help when he needs it. In fact, he only started hiring other part time workers after Gyujin forced him to. So he can’t help but feel a little weird when Minsoo offers to help him knead the dough, and put things in the oven, and setting the timer, and for the first time since forever, Yein finishes preparing early enough to have a proper breakfast.

“What do you usually have for breakfast?” Minsoo asks, as he looks through the fridge and pantry. There’s nothing much, but there are enough ingredients to make some fresh pasta, he says.

“Just bread,” Yein shrugs. “Any leftover dough, I just pop them in with the bread and have it with whatever my part time workers left for me in the fridge. Cheese, salsa sauce, butter and sugar. Anything.”

“Really?” Minsoo looks shocked. “Just that? Don’t you get hungry throughout the day?”

“They get me convenience store lunch boxes for lunch?” Yein shrugs. “And then I usually go for something heavier for dinner.”

“No wonder you’re so skinny,” Minsoo sounds concerned, and he’s also looking way more concerned than he should. Yein’s a little bit weirded out because he’s never had anyone get concerned about him like this, other than his three part time workers.

“I’ll live,” Yein says, but he’s a little unsure because Minsoo sounds very, very concerned.

“That’s not good, though,” Minsoo frowns. “You know what? I’ll make something for you every closing time so you can heat it up for your breakfast, how’s that sound?”

“Oh, no,” Yein shakes his head. Minsoo looks straight at him, abandoning the dough he was about to mix. “No, I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”

“No, no, Yein-ssi,” Minsoo also shakes his head. “It’s okay, I don’t mind. I really don’t mind. So let me do that for you, okay?”

Yein contemplates saying no for a second, but the offer’s just too good and Minsoo looks very sincere. So he reluctantly nods. “Okay… Thank you so much.”

“No problem,” Minsoo smiles, bright and happy. It warms Yein’s heart.

Minsoo’s fresh pasta is  _ good. _ The sauce had been nothing more than a simple carbonara, but there’s something about it that makes him want more. He convinces himself it’s not because he enjoys Minsoo’s company, but because the pasta is genuinely good. Minsoo smiles the whole breakfast while Yein showers him with compliments, because it’s really, really good, and he hasn’t had a proper breakfast like this in forever. He tells Minsoo this, who smiles warmly at him.

“I’m glad you enjoy my cooking, Yein-ssi,” Minsoo smiles. “It’s nothing special, but you still enjoyed it.”

“Of course I did,” Yein smiles. “I told you—it’s been a while since I’ve had a proper breakfast like this. Even though, you know, pasta isn't really proper breakfast food. But who cares? I was really hungry.”

Minsoo chuckles. “Me too.”

“Well,” Yein claps his hand and stands up from his seat. “We should start displaying the bread now.”

“I’ll wash the dishes? And you can go do that?” Minsoo offers. Yein shakes his head.

“How is that polite? You’re a guest here and you already cooked for me,” Yein frowns. “Let’s do it together?”

“Fine,” Minsoo nods. “Let’s do it.”

After that, Minsoo still doesn’t leave. Yein opens the shop—flips the sign on the door—and then goes towards the counter where Minsoo’s standing behind. They don’t say anything. Yein doesn’t know what to say even if he wanted to say something, and Minsoo doesn’t look like he’s going to say anything either, so Yein stands beside him and waits for his first customer of the day.

As usual, it’s Sooil. The tall man opens the door softly, and the bell above it jingles. Yein smiles. “Oh, Sooil hyung!”

“Yein-ah,” he greets, and then heads towards the counter immediately. “Can I get an iced chocolate with my order today?”

“Sure!” Yein nods. Minsoo moves, and gets out of Yein’s way while he punches in Sooil’s order on the cashier. “That’s an interesting choice for you. What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sooil shrugs, handing his card over to Yein. “Just wanted to change things up. I feel like I always get coffee. I was just feeling fresher today, so maybe an iced chocolate instead of coffee would be good for a change. And by the way—who’s this? New part time worker?”

Sooil looks towards Minsoo, and Yein looks at him as well. His mouth forms an O, as if he’d forgotten that Minsoo was there, and then he quickly turns to Sooil again. “Oh, no! He’s the manager of the cafe next door. He was just, uh, helping me out this morning.”

Sooil hums and nods as Yein hands his card back and his receipt to him. Yein gets to work packing Sooil’s order and making his drink, and before Sooil leaves, he turns around and says, “Yein, by the way, you look really good today!”

“Huh,” Yein looks confused for a second before he’s furiously blushing. “T-thanks…”

With that, Sooil leaves, and Minsoo clears his throat besides Yein. He fidgets nervously with his collar. “I uh, I should go.”

“Oh!” Yein nods and scratches the back of his head. “You should take some bread or something with you. Thank you so much for today, Minsoo-ssi.”

“No problem,” Minsoo smiles, but he looks tired, and Yein feels really, really guilty. He tells Minsoo to wait, grabs a couple pieces of chocolate chip cookies, a brownie, and some garlic bread, and puts them in a paper bag before giving it to Minsoo.

“It’s the least I could do, since you basically did free labor for me today,” Yein nervously laughs. Minsoo chuckles.

“It’s okay. But thank you for this, Yein-ssi,” he lifts up the bag of baked goods.

“Ah, no, thank  _ you,” _ Yein bows his head slightly at Minsoo, who also bows back. “You should head home and get some rest now. Thank you again.”

Minsoo nods and waves at Yein. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“See you tonight.”

—

Saturday nights are Yein’s favorite because he gets to sleep late without having to think about going to the bakery tomorrow. So while closing up with Dongyeol that night, the younger boy tells him he looks like he’s in a good mood.

“I’m always in a good mood. What do you mean?” Yein replies with a frown, but he goes back to his humming while sweeping. Dongyeol rolls his eyes as he stacks the baskets used to store the bread.

“Anything exciting tonight?” Dongyeol wiggles his eyebrows. “Like a date, maybe…”

“Dongyeol, it’s Saturday. Which means I get to catch up on my favorite shows and wake up at 9. Of course I’m in a good mood, I’m always in a good mood on Saturdays.”

Dongyeol shrugs. “Well, I’ve never seen you like this.”

To be completely honest, Yein’s just excited because he’s thinking about finally trying that bath bomb he bought online a few days ago, but he won’t say that. He’ll let Dongyeol run his imagination wild.

After they finish inside, and Dongyeol and Yein are outside pulling the shutters down, Minsoo shows up. They greet each other, and then Minsoo offers to help Yein. Dongyeol gives Yein an Oh-I-See expression before saying he has to run now, and since it looks like Minsoo’s helping Yein close the shutters, he won’t be needed anymore.

“I’ll see you on Monday, hyung!” Dongyeol immediately runs off to where his motorcycle is parked. Yein shakes his head at the kid, before turning back to Minsoo.

“So…” Minsoo starts, fidgeting with his fingers. “Do you have any plans for tonight?”

Yein’s heart starts beating a little bit faster. He blinks up at Minsoo and shakes his head quickly. “No. Why?”

“Would it be okay if I invited you inside for some dinner? Because uh, I wanted to make something more proper than what I did last time. Also, something more proper than what I always make you for breakfast.”

Yein blushes. Every time Minsoo drops off his breakfast, he always finishes it quickly in fear of his workers finding out. He’ll never live it down if they do find out, and even just now, when Dongyeol caught him and Minsoo talking, it felt different than usual. Like Dongyeol was catching him talking to his crush—it’s embarrassing (even though Minsoo  _ is _ his crush). Gyujin and Hwanhee will probably hear about this from Dongyeol now, and Yein can’t imagine what they’ll make him go through—the teasing, the “oh look it’s your crush”... Yein shivers thinking about it.

But there’s just the two of them right now. So Yein nods in reply to Minsoo’s offer. “Yeah, sure.”

Because he would never turn an offer like this down.

Minsoo takes him inside the cafe and immediately leads them to the kitchen. Behind a working station in the kitchen, Jinhyuk is there, giving them a raised eyebrow. Minsoo promptly kicks him out, but not before Jinhyuk says, “have fun, lovebirds! We open in 30!”

“God, he’s embarrassing,” Minsoo huffs while Yein laughs.

“Well, I hope I don’t get you fired.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Minsoo grumbles as he crouches down to open the fridge. “He can’t run this place without me.”

Minsoo lets Yein sit down by the station where Minsoo’s working. Yein watches closely as Minsoo works—for the second time this week—and notices how his arm veins look whenever he’s chopping garlic or something. The look of concentration on his face… How he licks his lips when it gets dry… The way his blonde hair falls over his eyes… Yein blinks a couple of times before sitting up straighter, but this must make Minsoo think that Yein was dozing off, because he then laughs and says, “I’m sorry, you must be really tired. Should I wrap this up to go for you? Should I drive you home? You shouldn’t be driving.”

Yein shakes his head. “No, no. I’m fine! I’ll just get some coffee with this. I’m not that tired.”

Minsoo frowns in concern. “Are you sure?”

“Are you worried about me?” Yein teases, and Minsoo actually nods.

“Of course I’m worried,” he says, and Yein doesn’t know what to reply to that, so he just watches as Minsoo goes back to work in silence.

Minsoo cooks up a buttery fried rice with eggs and some meat, and the smell of the butter wafts through the kitchen. It’s different from the sweet kind of buttery smell Yein is used to smelling in his own kitchen. It’s savory, and salivating, and Yein watches as Minsoo works the wok in awe.

“You’re amazing,” Yein says, still dazed. Minsoo had turned off the stove and is plating their dinner with a focused face, but he smiles at Yein’s compliment.

“Thank you,” he replies, and the smile he directs at Yein feels like it just stopped the air around them. Yein nervously smiles back.

Minsoo abandons his duties to sit and have dinner with Yein. Jinwook the part timer tells them it’s fine, that he’ll handle everything by himself, but Jinhyuk grumbles and says he’s going to replace Minsoo with Changhyun (to which Minsoo just rolls his eyes, while Changhyun whines at him).

“Do you wanna stay til people start coming in for the open mic night?” Minsoo offers, but he looks like he wants Yein to refuse because Yein looks tired. “But maybe not, you look a little tired.”

Yein shakes his head no. “I should head home. You’re right, maybe I am a little bit tired.”

Minsoo nods. “Do you want me to drive you home?”

“No, I should be fine, I don’t live too far from here,” Yein shrugs and stands up. “Wait, how much is this?”

“Oh, no, Yein-ssi,” Minsoo also stands, and shakes his head. “You don’t have to pay. I used your ingredients for our breakfast the other day. Let’s just call it even, yeah?”

“That’s not even,” Yein pouts. “Besides, what if your boss gets mad at you for letting me eat for free?”

Yein glances at Jinhyuk, who’s busy talking with Changhyun.

“Jinhyuk?” Minsoo laughs. “It’s fine, he’s cool. Don’t worry about it.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Minsoo nods. Yein bites his lips and nods as well.

“Okay, then. I’ll uh… I’ll get going. Thank you for tonight, Minsoo-ssi.”

“Hey, no problem,” Minsoo scratches the back of his head, smiling shyly. “It’s nothing.”

“I’ll… See you tomorrow?”

Minsoo nods. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

—

Yein actually comes for lunch the next day.

Minsoo spots him coming in and immediately comes over, smiling brightly. “Oh! Yein-ssi!”

“Minsoo-ssi!” Yein smiles back at him, and then looks around the cafe, looking for Gyujin. He’s supposed to be meeting Gyujin today because he promised to buy Gyujin a meal since he’s been whining about not getting enough quality time with his favorite hyung.

“Are you looking for someone?” Minsoo asks. He also looks around, as if trying to help Yein find who he’s looking for, even though he doesn’t know who Yein’s looking for.

“I’m supposed to meet Gyujin, my part time worker,” Yein says. “I guess he’s not here yet.”

“Oh,” Minsoo nods. “I know Gyujin. No, he’s not here yet. Take a seat?”

Yein lets Minsoo lead him to an empty table. The cafe looks busy since it’s lunch time, but Minsoo gets him a nice, pretty secluded table for two anyways. Minsoo gives him a menu and doesn’t say much, which is weird, because Yein thought they’d gotten past the awkward phase (never mind the fact that they still call each other with -ssi attached at the back of their name), but he thinks maybe Minsoo’s just tired.

Gyujin arrives not long after that. He immediately sits in front of Yein and takes a long sigh. “Traffic was wild today.”

“Isn’t it always,” Yein answers, flipping through the menu before glancing up at where Minsoo’s wiping down a table.

“You ordered yet, hyung?”

“Hmm, not yet. I was waiting for you,” Yein shrugs, and hands the menu over to Gyujin. “You order first.”

Gyujin takes the menu from Yein with a raised brow, and then looks behind him, where Yein is staring. “Stop staring at him, you’re gonna burn a hole in his head.”

“Not staring,” Yein frowns. “Just pick something.”

“Wow, whatever you say, hyung,” Gyujin flips through the menu.

When Minsoo comes over to get their order later, Yein asks for his recommendation, like usual.

“Oh,” Minsoo looks surprised at the question. “Well, Changhyun cooks the best bibimbap in my opinion, so I’d recommend that to you.”

“Then I’ll take that,” Yein says. Gyujin looks between them and blinks a couple of times.

“Huh,” he says. “I guess I’ll have that too.”

Minsoo nods, and looks between Yein and Gyujin a couple of times. After he finishes taking their order and leaves, Gyujin immediately nudges Yein.

“Hyung, did you see that?” He asks. “He was totally sizing me up.”

“Stop making things up,” Yein grumbles.

“Oh, come on, didn’t you see? He was totally looking me up and down like he was jealous!”

“Stop,” Yein groans. “Gyujin, can we please just have lunch in peace.”

“Hyung, he’s totally jealous!” Gyujin giggles. Yein rolls his eyes at him and ignores him.

They have lunch, mostly in peace. Yein ignores Gyujin’s teasing, and when they’re finished, Minsoo is waiting at the cashier. Gyujin wiggles his eyebrows at Yein before stepping outside first, letting Yein and Minsoo have some time alone.

“Good lunch?” Minsoo asks, taking Yein’s card from him. Yein nods.

“Yeah. The bibimbap was really nice. Tell the chef thank you,” Yein says, and Minsoo nods.

“I’ll tell Changhyun that,” he says. After Minsoo gives Yein his card back with the receipt, he says, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning?”

Yein smiles and nods. “Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

Yein turns around and outside, Gyujin is grinning at him mischievously through the window. He sighs. The kids will never let him live.

—

When Yein gets out of his car Monday morning, he sees Minsoo waiting outside his shop with a little lunch box in his hands. As soon as Minsoo spots him, he smiles.

“Good morning,” he greets.

“Good morning,” Yein stops in front of Minsoo, hiking his backpack higher up his shoulder. “What are you doing here? Were you waiting for me?”

Minsoo grins. “Kind of. We finished closing up earlier, but I promised you that I’d make you breakfast, right?”

Yein nods, while Minsoo hands the lunch box over to Yein. Their fingertips touch, and Yein bites his lips to suppress a smile. He feels like a high school kid who just accidentally touched fingers with their crush. “Thank you.”

“Just heat these up like usual. And… I’ll see you tonight?” Minsoo’s eyes are wide and sparkly, and Yein just nods. He’s blushing, and Minsoo’s blushing, but Yein thinks it’s just the cold of the night.

Minsoo walks away, towards his car, and Yein watches as it drives away. He hugs the lunch box closer to his chest. He wonders what Minsoo has cooked for him.

Later, when he’s heated up the chicken rice that Minsoo’s cooked for him, and has sat down behind the counter to eat before the shop gets busy, Gyujin shows up. Gyujin usually never shows up this early, but just Yein’s luck, Gyujin shows up on the day Minsoo decided he’ll give Yein a fancier, more proper breakfast than the usual leftover fried rice mix.

“Ooh, what’s this? Did our Yein hyung decide to cook a proper breakfast?” He asks, before he spots the ‘SOL Cafe’ written in bold letters on top of the lunch box’s cover. He gasps. “Did Minsoo hyung give this to you?”

“How did you know this was from Minsoo?!” Yein almost screams. Gyujin points at the ‘SOL Cafe’ written on the cover of the lunch box in black pen. He laughs, while Yein groans and flips it over so Gyujin can’t see.

“Well, too late, now,” Gyujin shakes his head. “At least now I know where you’ve been getting your nutritious breakfasts from.”

“You’re so annoying,” Yein frowns, but he continues to eat anyway.

Gyujin doesn’t say anything for the rest of his shift, but Yein knows he’s passed on the information to Hwanhee, who definitely passed it on to Dongyeol, and by the end of the day, when it comes time to close the bakery and he and Dongyeol are pulling the shutters down, Dongyeol says,

“You know, I’m glad you still have a love life, hyung,” before immediately running away, without saying anything else. Yein just frowns, and when he turns towards his car, Minsoo is standing there, smiling and waving.

Yein walks up to him and returns the lunch box. “Thank you for breakfast. I enjoyed it.”

Minsoo takes it from him, and their fingers brush again. Yein blushes and looks down, refusing to meet Minsoo’s eyes. “I’m glad you did. Um… Do you have any requests for tomorrow morning?”

Yein hums, before shaking his head no. “I like the surprise.”

“Okay,” Minsoo chuckles. “Well… I’ll see you tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah,” Yein nods. “See you tomorrow morning.”

On the way home, Yein’s heart beats a little too fast for his liking that he decides to pull over at a coffee shop and get himself a hot chocolate to calm himself down. He thinks about what kind of breakfast Minsoo will make him tomorrow morning. He thinks about what kind of cookie he’ll give to Minsoo as a thank you.

And then, he thinks about how nice it’d be if this goes on forever (he thinks, he won’t mind even if Minsoo eventually runs out of ideas and only makes him fried rice forever).

—

Even with the whole food/cookie exchange, their relationship is moving too slow for Hwanhee’s liking. Hwanhee always whines and moans about how it’s frustrating to see Yein and Minsoo dance around each other like this, and how they never dropped the honorific behind their names whenever they talk to each other, despite finding out that they’re the same age. His whining eventually reaches Gyujin and Dongyeol, who both also agree that things are moving too slow between Minsoo and Yein. But Yein enjoys it. He enjoys this little thing he and Minsoo have going on. It feels like the high school crush he never had, and he likes this. He likes this a lot.

When Yein confesses that he doesn’t have Minsoo’s number, and that they don’t really talk to each other outside of the food/cookie exchange, Hwanhee is  _ convinced _ this is the issue. He’s convinced this is why things are moving too slow, but Yein enjoys the slow pace.

It is many, many weeks later after the start of their food/cookie exchange, and after many, many ‘dates’ (the kids call them dates, Yein insists they’re not) later, a big basket of red roses is sent to the bakery.

It’s big, it’s red, and it smells really good. The red roses sit by the cashier while Yein and Gyujin inspect it. There are baby breath flowers spread between it, and it looks really, really pretty. Gyujin snaps a picture of it, mouth wide open.

“Does our Gyujin have a secret admirer?” Yein teases as they both look through the basket for a card, or anything else that can tell them who this might be from and who it is meant for.

“Huh?” Gyujin looks shocked and confused, before shaking his head. “No way! Maybe it’s for  _ you, _ hyung.”

Gyujin sticks his hand in the back of the basket and whips out a card that probably fell between the flowers during transport. He flips it back and forth until he finally sees, in neat writing, ‘Yein-ssi, have a good day.’

Gyujin  _ screams. _ Yein flinches in shock, before Gyujin looks at Yein with teary eyes and a proud expression, mixed with shock. “See?! Hyung, it’s for you!”

Yein blinks once, twice, before shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re lying!”

Gyujin shoves the card in his hands. “Well, it looks like it says ‘Yein-ssi’, to me! I don’t know about you, hyung, but—“

Yein  _ screams. _ “Who would send this?!”

They both stare at each other for a while, and then stare at the flower, at the card, and then Gyujin suddenly smirks. “I only know  _ one _ person who calls you Yein-ssi, and he’d  _ definitely  _ send you a flower!”

Yein frowns. Nobody really comes to mind, if he’s being honest. “Who?”

“Go Minsoo!” Gyujin says, frustrated, eyes wide and eyebrows raised, as if this is such an obvious answer—but Yein really doesn’t think Minsoo would send him this. Minsoo?

“Minsoo?” Yein looks between the card, and the flower, and imagines Minsoo going into a florist to arrange a flower delivery to him. He imagines Minsoo penning this card, and then he blushes, while Gyujin covers his mouth with his hands and gasps.

“I can’t believe there’s finally some kind of development between you guys,” Gyujin says. “I’m going to tell Hwanhee and Dongyeol!”

And tell them he does. When Hwanhee comes in for his shift later, Gyujin immediately pulls him over to the flowers and gushes about how Minsoo sent their precious Yein hyung this basket. Yein can only watch them with a sigh.

During his lunch, Yein thinks back to that morning. Minsoo had nervously given him his breakfast—unusual, Yein would say, because Minsoo never really gets nervous about their breakfast exchange, unlike Yein, who sometimes does—and after Yein gave him his cookies, immediately rushed into his car. Yein didn’t think of his nervousness as something that was weird, then, but he remembers Jinwook grinning at him before walking off, and he thinks that could have been a sign that Minsoo was going to do something.

Hwanhee sounds excited as he tells Yein to send one back, but Yein refuses—besides, they don’t know yet if it could be Minsoo. For all he knows, it could be his regular customer Sooil, who sometimes flirts with him for fun (or at least, Yein thinks it’s for fun). Hwanhee says there’s no way, and says they should ask Dongyeol later. So they do. When Dongyeol comes in for his shift, Hwanhee immediately explains the flower to him, and with a firm, sure expression, he says, “I think it’s from Minsoo hyung, too.”

“See?” Hwanhee turns around and faces Yein from where he’s standing by the flower, showing it to Dongyeol. “Why don’t you ask him tonight?”

Dongyeol nods in agreement. Yein huffs, and then nods. “Fine. I’ll ask him tonight.”

That night, oddly, Minsoo doesn’t come out of the cafe, even when Yein and Dongyeol are pulling the shutters down. The shutter makes a lot of noise, and it usually alerts Minsoo that Yein is closing if he’s inside the cafe. This time, he doesn’t come out.

Yein opens the backseat of his car and puts the basket of roses in there, and Dongyeol says, “Yein hyung, aren’t you going to ask him?”

Yein bites his lips. He’s nervous. He doesn’t know why, but he is. He’s afraid of Minsoo’s answer, but he can’t lie that he’s also curious and is hoping that these flowers really  _ are _ from Minsoo. It warmed his heart every time he looked at it today. It kept him going for the rest of the day, gave him strength, and just the thought that Minsoo wanted to give him this big, big basket of beautiful red roses was so, so overwhelming. The kids seemed happy about it too. They were happy for him—they  _ are _ happy for him. It makes him happy to see them happy. Thinking of Minsoo makes Yein happy, too. And besides, he has to return the lunch box, he finally reasons with himself, before firmly nodding and shutting the back door of his car with a slam. “Alright. Here I go.”

Dongyeol smiles at him. “Good luck, hyung. See you tomorrow!”

Yein doesn’t wait until Dongyeol gets on his motorcycle (he never really liked seeing Dongyeol ride that thing), and immediately walks into the cafe with the lunch box in his hands. Minsoo’s hunched over the counter, writing something, and he seems to be alone. Yein takes a deep breath, puffs up his chest, and walks towards Minsoo in sure strides.

“Hey,” Yein greets him. Minsoo flinches, surprised, looking up at Yein with wide eyes. He drops the pen he was holding.

“Oh! Yein-ssi!” He says. Definitely weird, Yein thinks. Minsoo’s never this odd and nervous around him.

“Here’s your lunch box,” Yein slides it over. It’s clean, as usual, and smells like Yein’s dish soap. Minsoo takes it and smiles.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“I did!” Yein grins. “And actually, I have something to ask you…”

“Oh, go ahead,” Minsoo nods, looking up at Yein. Yein takes another deep breath and looks Minsoo straight in the eyes, and asks,

“Did you send me roses?”

Silence. The only sound between them now is the sound of aggressive chopping coming from the kitchen, along with the sound of Jinhyuk’s loud laugh. Minsoo blinks once, twice, and so does Yein. Yein feels like he’s holding his breath waiting for Minsoo’s answer. A few seconds that feels like forever for Yein passes, before Minsoo breathes out a quiet, “yeah.”

Yein blinks in surprise.

“But, I just, you know,” Minsoo shrugs, and this is the part where Yein immediately thinks,  _ oh no. _ His heart slowly sinks as Minsoo continues his speech. “Jinhyuk’s husband, Wooseok, he’s this florist, and they’ve just had a big batch of order get cancelled, so now he has all these excess roses that need to go, and I-I thought it’d be nice to send you some…”

Yein’s heart is at his feet. It slowly shatters, because it feels like the kids hyped him up and put false hope into him, when in reality—Minsoo had sent it to him without any thought. More than blaming the kids, Yein feels like blaming  _ himself, _ because he believed them. He believed them, and he believed Minsoo, and he really, really hoped the flowers had meant more, no matter how much he had denied it in front of the kids. He believed in his own stupid thoughts that told him Minsoo had wanted to say something when he sent him these flowers and acted awkward around him.

“Oh,” is all Yein could say. “Thank you for that, too…”

Yein doesn’t know if he’s hiding the disappointment in his face well, but he must be, because Minsoo is smiling brightly at him, still. “It’s no problem. I thought it’d cheer you up! Did it?”

It did, but not anymore. Still, Yein gave Minsoo a small smile. “Of course.”

“I’m glad then,” Minsoo says. “You should go home and get some rest. You look really tired.”

Yein nods lifelessly at Minsoo’s words, before turning around. Minsoo calls out their usual “see you tomorrow morning!”, and for the first time ever, Yein doesn’t reply to that with the same sentence.

Yein turns and gives Minsoo a small smile, before nodding and saying, “yeah.”

—

When Yein gets home that night, the first thing he does after storing his sourdough babies safely in their places, is he throws away the flowers in the flower basket. And then, he sends the same text to exactly three people—Gyujin, Hwanhee, and Dongyeol. The text only says,

“The bakery is closed tomorrow.”

He shuts off his phone and gets in the shower.

He cries, for the first time in a long while, feeling absolutely embarrassed and devastated that his little crush has to end here. He was enjoying it. He was genuinely enjoying the time he spent with Minsoo, he was enjoying every second spent feeling like a ridiculous high schooler every time his fingers brushed with Minsoo’s, he enjoyed putting together Minsoo’s assorted cookie bag for every morning.

Now it’s just ridiculous, he thinks. He only remembered the good parts about having a crush, completely forgetting that it would hurt like this if things don’t go well. He remembers his past one-sided crushes now, and he thinks,  _ I’m an idiot for ever forgetting those painful moments. _

He doesn’t even have the heart to curse Minsoo out.

Yein curls up in his bed after his long, warm shower, and immediately falls asleep, too exhausted to think about anything else after that day.

—

The text has Gyujin, Hwanhee, and Dongyeol worried. Yein only ever closes the bakery (or, tries to close it, because Gyujin will try to open it for Yein if he can, anyways) whenever he gets really,  _ really  _ sick, so the next morning, Yein wakes up to frantic knocking on his door.

“Hyung! Hyung, it’s me!” Dongyeol’s panicked voice cuts through the apartment.

Yein groans and sits up. He looks over at the clock on his bedside table—7 AM. He frowns. He wants to sleep longer than that, but he should probably open the door if he doesn’t wanna hear his neighbors complain about Dongyeol’s loud knocking.

He opens the door, and the first thing Dongyeol does is hug him. And then he pulls back, and takes a good look at Yein’s face, and then he cringes. Yein looks… Miserable. His eyes are puffy, his cheeks red, and Dongyeol immediately pushes Yein inside the apartment.

“Hyung, are you sick?” Dongyeol puts the palm of his hand on Yein’s forehead, and Yein pulls back, frowning.

“No. I’m just exhausted, Yeol-ah,” Yein croaks out, and he sounds so miserable Dongyeol frowns. He follows Yein into the kitchen, and that’s when he sees the big basket of flowers shoved in the tiny trash can Yein has in his kitchen.

_ Uh oh, _ Dongyeol thinks.

“Gyujin hyung and Hwanhee are working at the bakery today, hyung,” Dongyeol tries to start. Yein doesn’t say anything for a while, and just starts making coffee. And then, he turns and looks at Dongyeol.

“Why? I told you guys it’s closed,” but he doesn’t sound angry. Dongyeol just shrugs and fidgets with the ends of his hoodie. Yein isn’t angry, he knows, but Yein is upset. A different kind of upset than Dongyeol’s used to. He doesn’t know how to handle this, so he just awkwardly stands there.

“Because… They always do it whenever you’re sick?” Dongyeol sounds unsure. Yein doesn’t look sick. Yein pours himself a cup of coffee.

“I’m not sick,” Yein says. “I told you. It’s closed.”

“You didn’t say you weren’t sick,” Dongyeol’s voice gets smaller and smaller. Yein is intimidating. At least, he is to Dongyeol when he’s being a little bit more sensitive than usual, just like this, so Dongyeol is nervous.

Yein doesn’t say anything as he sips his coffee, and then sits on a stool in the kitchen. He gestures Dongyeol to do the same, so the younger sits down on another stool, right next to Yein.

“What is this really about, hyung?” Dongyeol asks quietly. He looks at Yein, who’s staring off into nothing, cup of coffee on one hand. Yein sighs.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he replies, and Dongyeol lets the silence take over them for a few seconds before he finally says,

“It’s about Minsoo hyung, isn’t it?”

Yein’s heart is heavy with sadness. At the mention of Minsoo’s name, he frowns and puts down his cup of coffee on the counter in front of them. He looks at Dongyeol, whose eyes are wide and curious, but most of all, he looks concerned. He looks really, really worried about Yein. But Yein doesn’t want to tell him this. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing and it’s heartbreaking, and he’s not sure how Dongyeol will respond—whether Dongyeol would sympathize with him or instead, laugh at him, knowing his childish personality.

“Don’t mention his name,” Yein settles on saying instead. Dongyeol furrows his brows in concern.

“I saw the flowers—“

“Don’t,” Yein says, and his tone is firm and serious. This would usually shut Dongyeol up, but not this time. Dongyeol is nothing if not persistent.

“Hyung. What did he do last night?” Dongyeol asks, concerned. “God. I should have stayed with you.”

“Nothing, Yeol-ah. Don’t worry. It was me. I just… I misunderstood something and embarrassed myself,” Yein sighs, and Dongyeol has never seen him look this upset.

“What did you misunderstand?”

“It’s nothing,” Yein pats Dongyeol’s thigh softly. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get over it.”

“Hyung, is this why the flowers are in the trash can?”

Yein nods. “Yeah.”

The silence between them is deafening. All they can hear is the quiet hum of the refrigerator. They don’t say anything for a while. Dongyeol doesn’t know what to say or ask. And even if he did say something, he thinks, Yein probably won’t answer it. Yein seems adamant on keeping things to himself, so all Dongyeol can do is offer him an awkward pat on the back. Yein takes a deep breath, and then picks up his cup of coffee. He sips from it, and then sighs, before looking at Dongyeol.

“I thought he was,” Yein suddenly starts. “You know… Interested in me.”

Dongyeol raises an eyebrow.  _ Isn’t he?, _ he thinks, but Yein looks like he still has more to say, so Dongyeol says nothing and lets Yein continue.

“I thought he bought the flowers because he wanted to say something. I thought the flowers meant something, especially after you guys said it probably did,” Yein sighs. Dongyeol opens his mouth to say something, but Yein shakes his head gently. “It’s not your fault. It was mine. I chose to believe in my own hopes, and I chose to believe in what you guys said. It wasn’t any of you guys’ fault. It was mine.

“I went and asked him if he sent me the flowers,” Yein puts down his cup of coffee. “Then he goes and says that he only bought the flowers to help his boss’ husband. Said he’s a florist, and they just got a big batch order cancelled, so now they’re selling off the excess flowers, and he said…”

Yein sighs again. Dongyeol continues to pat his back in an attempt to comfort him.

“Well, he said he was only helping him. So he decided to send one to me. So now  _ I’m  _ the idiot for ever believing he ever liked me, even the slightest bit, because he clearly doesn’t. The flowers don’t mean anything.”

“But nobody just does that, hyung,” Dongyeol frowns. “I’m sure he just doesn’t know how to say he likes you.”

Yein gives Dongyeol a sad smile. “Well, if he does, he better make it very clear, because I don’t have time for this push and pull, Yeol-ah.”

Dongyeol sees the resigned expression on Yein. He sees the sadness, and the way Yein’s smiles don’t quite reach his eyes, and Dongyeol pouts.

“Hyung,” Dongyeol’s voice is shaky when he speaks, and then he hugs Yein. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Yein hugs him back, pats his back softly and sighs. “It’s not your fault. It was never your fault.”

“But I just feel so bad,” Dongyeol says. “What if he really doesn’t like you? What if he really is just wasting your time, and we’re making you believe that he actually likes you? Hyung…”

“Silly,” Yein laughs. “It’s fine. I’ll get over it, right? I’ll move on. I’ll move on, and everything’s going to be fine.”

Even as he says it, he doesn’t really believe himself. But he thinks, if he tells himself this enough, then maybe it’ll come true. And besides, he’s got his three little rascals with him. They’ll know what to do, and they’ll help him through—they always do. Dongyeol pulls away and gives Yein puppy dog eyes, melting Yein’s heart.

“I love you hyung, you know that right? I don’t want you to get hurt,” he pouts. “Well, not as much as I love Hwanhee, but you get me.”

Yein laughs again, this time, a little more sincere than before. “Of course I know that. And I love you too, you little peach.”

—

That morning, when Minsoo closed up the cafe, he didn't see Yein. Yein did look unwell the night before, so Minsoo chalked it up to Yein being sick or waking up late, which meant in a few hours, he’ll probably be seeing Gyujin open up the shop, or maybe even Yein if he’s only running late. So then, Minsoo decided to wait until 3:30 AM, but instead of Yein, he saw Gyujin and Hwanhee. So he decided to leave, because that meant Yein’s probably sick. He looked down at his lunch box, and decided to just bring it home.

Now, it’s already noon and it’s time to open his cafe for lunch, but Yein’s still nowhere to be seen, so he guesses that Yein’s really sick. He can’t help but feel worried, though, and he realizes he doesn’t have Yein’s number, so he can’t really text him and ask what’s up either.

It’s when he’s sitting outside the cafe, taking a break and chatting with Changhyun while the cafe isn’t busy, that he sees Dongyeol’s motorcycle stop in front of the bakery. Dongyeol gets off, takes off his helmet, and instead of heading inside the bakery, he walks towards Minsoo. Minsoo blinks a couple of times, and before he knows it, Dongyeol is standing in front of him.

“Hey,” Minsoo greets, but Dongyeol doesn’t reply and only frowns. He looks pissed—Minsoo’s not gonna lie. Then again, Minsoo doesn’t really know Dongyeol all that well, asides from the couple of times Minsoo’s seen him around the bakery or the cafe, and despite the fact that Dongyeol calls him ‘hyung’ and is friendly with him most of the time, so Minsoo stays quiet. He thinks maybe this is a normal Dongyeol expression.

“Minsoo hyung,” he says. “Don’t say anything and just listen.”

Minsoo nods. Next to him, Changhyun also seems to be paying attention to their conversation, but Dongyeol doesn’t seem to mind.

“You know that my Yein hyung is really sensitive, right?” Dongyeol starts. “You know he doesn’t have time to be fucking around and playing along with your games either, so why are you doing this to him?”

“Do what?” Minsoo can’t help himself. He speaks up before Dongyeol’s finished, because he’s too shocked. He wasn’t expecting to hear this from Dongyeol. To be fair, he doesn’t know what he was expecting Dongyeol to say when he marched up to him looking all angry like that, but this was probably not it.

“This! Playing around with his feelings! Sending him flowers and then telling him it didn’t mean anything special?” Dongyeol scoffs, and before Minsoo can cut in, Dongyeol’s already rambling again. “You better fucking make sure of your fucking feelings if you still wanna be working around here.”

Without hearing Minsoo’s reply, Dongyeol angrily turns around and stomps inside the bakery. Minsoo blinks once, twice, before Changhyun lets out a long sigh of relief next to him.

“God,” he says. “I really thought that kid was gonna beat you up and I’d have to break up a fight.”

Minsoo doesn’t say anything, only sits there in shock, even as Changhyun firmly grabs his shoulder and pats it a couple of times.

“You really fucked up, man,” he says, before leaving Minsoo to think by himself outside. When Changhyun disappears into the cafe, Minsoo cringes.

Maybe he did fuck it up badly. He really hadn’t meant to hurt Yein—he was just nervous. He was super nervous about sending Yein flowers, he was super nervous about Yein finding out, and maybe, just maybe, he let his nerves get the best of him, and that’s why he said that—that he just sent them to Yein because he was helping someone else, and not because he really was thinking of Yein. Yein probably thinks he wasn’t the only person Minsoo sent those flowers to, with the way Minsoo worded things yesterday.

He sighs. He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t text Yein either because he’s only realized today that he doesn’t have Yein’s number. He considers heading inside the bakery now and asking whoever’s working inside for Yein’s number, but then he remembers how angry Dongyeol had been walking into the bakery, so he refrains.

He messes with his hair in frustration. He’ll have to think about how he’s going to apologize to Yein, but for now, he thinks, he’ll distract himself with work. He can’t think straight right now.

—

After his lunch shift, though, he’s convinced himself that the other part time workers at the bakery are probably not too angry with him. So he takes his chances and heads straight towards the bakery after the lunch shift at the cafe is over.

Inside, Gyujin is standing behind the counter alone, while Hwanhee and Dongyeol are nowhere to be seen. Minsoo lets out a small sigh of relief, before picking up a random chocolate bread from the shelf, and heading towards the cashier. Gyujin’s staring at him with a straight face, but it doesn’t deter him. He hands the bread over to Gyujin, and takes out some change from his pockets. Gyujin robotically reads his total, and then gives Minsoo his change and his bread without saying another word.

Minsoo hesitates for a bit too long in front of the cashier after getting his change and his bread, so Gyujin sighs and asks, “what do you want?”

Minsoo cringes. He doesn’t know if he deserves this hostility, but then again, Yein didn’t come to the bakery today. So that must mean he’s done  _ something _ that would warrant this kind of attitude.

“Uh,” Minsoo licks his lips nervously. “Can I… Please get Yein-ssi’s number? I need to know if he’s okay.”

Minsoo doesn’t know what he expects, but maybe it wasn’t Gyujin scoffing at him.

“Now you care?” Gyujin asks, and this really doesn’t sit well with Minsoo—so what if he cares? He’s just being a decent human being. He can care about Yein, right? Especially after he found out that he’d hurt Yein. Besides, he doesn’t think there’s a need for any of these kids to be as hostile as they are towards him—it’s not like Minsoo did anything terrible, right?

Minsoo frowns. “You don’t have to be so aggressive towards me,” he says.

Gyujin rolls his eyes. “He’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t worry about it too much. Especially since you already know the reason why he’s sick.”

That really,  _ really _ doesn’t sit well with Minsoo, but he doesn’t wanna aggravate Gyujin any further, so he gives up and leaves. He guesses he’ll see Yein sometime anyways, even if not tomorrow. Yein will eventually return to the bakery, right?

But true to Gyujin’s words, when he gets off work that morning, Yein’s there with his bulky backpack and he’s pushing up the shutters. Yein seems to be ignoring him, though, because he doesn’t say anything even after he’s noticed Minsoo standing there with his usual box of breakfast.

Minsoo decides to come up to him first. Yein still doesn’t greet him, so he decides to say hello first.

“Yein-ssi,” he calls out. Yein turns to look at him with a flat expression. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Yein simply replies. He unlocks the door to the bakery and goes inside, ignoring Minsoo and slamming the door on his face. Minsoo stares at Yein in shock, and then looks down at the lunch box he’s still holding—Yein didn’t even take it. Still, he leaves the lunch box on the table closest to the door inside the bakery when Yein’s inside the kitchen.

Of course Yein hears the bell above the door. He was ready to kick Minsoo out when he came out of the kitchen, but all he sees is a lonely lunch box on the table besides the door. He sighs. He doesn’t know what to make of this. Why is Minsoo still being nice to him? Clearly, he doesn’t think of them as more than friends. Then again, Yein briefly thinks maybe he’s the one overreacting in this situation, but he doesn’t let that thought go too far. He takes the lunch box with him to the kitchen.

Outside, Minsoo’s sitting inside his car and cursing at himself. He’s not sure what to do. He thinks, maybe he’d really hurt Yein’s feelings when he said what he did. But he’s not sure what to do if Yein won’t hear him out, let alone his apologies. Nevertheless, he should still try, right? Especially after how Dongyeol threatened him yesterday. He should at least be decent and apologize.

So when he comes in for his lunch shift that day and sees Hwanhee outside the bakery, he catches him. “Hey dude.”

Hwanhee turns and looks around, before pointing at himself and mouthing, ‘me?’ Minsoo nods.

“Yeah. I need your help,” Minsoo looks and sounds desperate that it’s almost funny, but Hwanhee keeps his face straight.

“With what?” Hwanhee asks.

“I just… Wanna know how to tell your boss I’m sorry… How do I make him listen to my apology? Please, I need help…” Minsoo looks really, really desperate and really dumb that Hwanhee has to hold himself from laughing. Hwanhee rolls his eyes and shakes his head in disbelief instead.

“You’re such an idiot,” he says. “Just talk to him.”

Before he can really break out laughing, he turns around and walks away, and goes inside the bakery.

Minsoo doesn’t know what to do, so he stands there for a while before going inside the cafe.

“You look down,” is how Jinhyuk greets him when Minsoo finally steps inside the kitchen. Changhyun is there, doing some last minute prepping, and Jinhyuk’s leaning against an empty workstation. Minsoo sighs, leaning back next to Jinhyuk, and doesn’t say anything.

“He pissed off the baker next door,” Changhyun tells Jinhyuk. Jinhyuk laughs. Minsoo groans and pushes him roughly.

“No I didn’t,” he says, but Changhyun shakes his head.

“No? I definitely saw his part time worker chew you out the other day,” Changhyun snickers, then he turns to Jinhyuk. “Minsoo’s a playboy who plays with people’s feelings~”

“Oh no,” Jinhyuk laughs out loud. “What did you do, man?”

Minsoo frowns, but he eventually reluctantly tells them about his problem with Yein—how he’d bought flowers from Wooseok specifically to send to Yein, and how he fucked up when Yein asked him why he sent those flowers. Specifically, how he lied about buying them to help Wooseok out, and not because he really only thought of Yein.

“He probably assumed you got them for a couple of people, dude. He’s probably embarrassed he thought of you that way,” Jinhyuk says.

“What way?”

“You know, in a special way or something,” Jinhyuk shrugs. “Or romantically. I don’t know.”

“But I do think of him that way.”

“Well, he doesn’t know that,” Jinhyuk clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “For someone who used to date a lot back in college, you’re pretty dumb.”

Minsoo frowns at Jinhyuk’s words. “I got nervous, okay? I got nervous and said the wrong thing, and now I don’t even know if he’ll want to talk to me.”

“Come on, dude,” Changhyun says. “Just talk to him and say that you like him without beating around the bush. Apologize, and then tell him about your feelings. You’re both adults. I’m sure he’ll want to listen to you if you just talk?”

“Easy for you to say,” Minsoo grumbles. Next to him, Jinhyuk puts an arm around Minsoo.

“Maybe you should get him flowers and deliver it yourself. And then tell him. Wouldn’t that be more straightforward and better?” Jinhyuk suggests.

Changhyun scoffs. “If he doesn’t fuck up, that is.”

“I won’t, okay! I won’t! I promise I won’t!” Minsoo whines.

Jinhyuk shakes his head. “Whatever you say.”

—

Minsoo’s pretty sure Changhyun and Jinhyuk’s advices had been a passing one. A joke, if he really distrusts his friends. But he takes the advice nonetheless—he’s  _ that _ desperate. So he gets a bouquet of sunflowers, because Wooseok said it would be cute, and then right when the bakery closes, he waits outside for Yein to come out.

As soon as Yein and Dongyeol both spot him, they gasp. The sunflowers Wooseok had given Minsoo are almost as big as Minsoo’s body, and as Minsoo’s holding it, he looks like he’s drowning. Minsoo smiles at Yein.

“Hey… Yein-ssi,” he starts.

“Hey?” Yein looks confused, but he’s not walking away either, which is good. Minsoo lets out a sigh of relief.

“Listen,” Minsoo adjusts the position of the flowers he’s holding. “I’m… Really sorry about the other day. I actually… Really, really like you, and I just. I just don’t know how to say it. And then I freaked out the other day when you asked me if I sent you those flowers, and I’m sorry, and I realize that I shouldn’t have lied like that to you, and I’m sorry, I’m rambling right now, aren’t I?”

Yein blinks up at Minsoo once, twice, and then all he says is, “oh.”

Behind him, Dongyeol takes a step back.

“That’s… Okay,” Yein eventually says after a while. “Sorry. I just… I got embarrassed. You didn’t like me like that, and I was just so embarrassed that I would think that.”

“No, no,” Minsoo shakes his head. “I do like you like that. I just got nervous when you asked me about the flowers, and I lied. I really did get them because I thought of you and only you, not because I was trying to help Jinhyuk’s husband. So, I’m really sorry about that. I’m sorry you got hurt because I was a nervous idiot. Forgive me?”

Minsoo offers the bouquet of flowers to Yein. His eyes are wide and watery, and he looks like he’d cry if Yein said no. But Yein’s not that mean, so he shyly nods and takes it. It’s heavier than he expected, so he almost drops it. “It’s okay.”

Dongyeol clears his throat behind them. “I, uh… I should go, now. See you, hyung…”

Dongyeol awkwardly sprints off before the two of them can even form a reply, and Yein feels very, very embarrassed. He stares at the flowers he’s holding, and then at Minsoo, and Minsoo scratches the back of his head with a shy, embarrassed laugh. Yein laughs with him.

“I’m sorry… Again,” Minsoo says. He’s not really looking at Yein and his cheeks and ears are red. It’s cute.

“I’m sorry, too.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Minsoo bites his lips. “It was all me. You did nothing wrong. I understand why you’d feel hurt.”

“Yeah, but maybe I overreacted, too,” Yein holds the big bouquet of sunflowers closer to his chest. He almost disappears behind it. “You know, I shouldn’t have been too harsh on you. And Dongyeol definitely shouldn’t have gotten mad at you like that.”

Minsoo cringes, while Yein laughs. “Let’s just call it even, Minsoo-ssi. I got embarrassed and got mad because you were nervous and said the wrong thing. It’s natural. It happens, right?”

“Right,” Minsoo nods.

They stand there in silence for a while, the wind blowing softly around them. It’s gotten a bit colder at night lately, so Yein shivers a little when the wind blows at him. Minsoo puts his hands in his jacket pocket, and looks at Yein, who’s hidden behind the bouquet of sunflowers.

“Yein-ssi, are you free after this?”

“Huh?” Yein peeks from behind the large bouquet. He adjusts its position again, and then nods. He feels like his heart and his face might explode, but he also doesn’t wanna get his hopes up with Minsoo again. “Yeah, why?”

“Do you maybe… Wanna grab dinner?” Minsoo sounds unsure. He even looks unsure. Yein immediately nods without thinking—not because it’s Minsoo, but because he’s hungry. Definitely because he’s hungry.

“Sure,” and then, because Yein doesn’t want another embarrassing fuck up to happen between them, he asks, “so is this a date then?”

Minsoo looks surprised, but he smiles brightly at the question. “Sure! It’s a date.”

Yein smiles back and hides his blushing face behind the large bouquet. He’s not sure how he’ll survive the rest of today without breaking out in giddy laughter every five seconds.

Gyujin or Dongyeol would tell him that he forgives too fast, but Yein honestly doesn’t think so—it’s just a misunderstanding, and there’s no use in dwelling over it for too long. So Minsoo, completely abandoning his cafe manager duties, offers to drive Yein’s car to their destination (a samgyeopsal restaurant that, according to Minsoo, is the best in town) and then drive Yein back to his apartment, before taking a taxi back to the cafe, and honestly? Yein is down for anything (with Minsoo, at that) right now, so he says yes. He puts the sunflower in the backseat of his car, and for the first time since he bought this car, he sits in the passenger seat.

Minsoo’s driving style can only be described as smooth. Unlike Yein, who easily gets riled up on the road, Minsoo doesn’t. He drives calmly, and smoothly, and all the way there, they both get to talk about random things other than food. Yein turns on the radio and puts on his favorite songs, and Minsoo says, “You listen to such pretty songs. Is it because you’re also pretty?”

Yein blushes hard, and he doesn’t know what to say, so he only turns up the radio volume. Minsoo laughs at Yein’s embarrassed fidgeting, and after a couple more cheesy ments, they finally arrive at the place Minsoo had recommended.

It’s nice and not too crowded. They sit on an outdoor table, and Yein finds out that Minsoo doesn’t drink soda or alcohol, so he settles for just mineral water while Yein orders some Sprite for himself.

“Actually, I don’t like sugary things,” Minsoo admits, before quickly shaking his head. “But, you know, I like your baked goods! I always finish them by myself!”

Yein laughs. “I should make more savory bread just for you, then.”

Minsoo smiles, awkward and crooked, and Yein feels like holding his breath just to make time stop. Honestly, the date is nothing special. They’re both not dressed for it—in fact, Yein’s pretty sure he smells like sweat more than anything right now, because he’s still wearing the same work clothes he’s been wearing since 3 AM. The place isn’t that fancy, either. But to Yein, this feels like a serious, planned out date. Like they’re sitting at some fancy restaurant with fancy lights and fancy music, minus the fancy clothing. He feels a little like he should have dressed better despite not knowing that Minsoo would ask him out. Maybe it’s just him overreacting because it’s his first date in a long, long while, but he still feels nervous about how he looks and how he’s dressed that he keeps fixing his hair. Minsoo also does the same thing—he messes with his hair and licks his lips every once in a while. But Yein thinks, he doesn’t seem to be as nervous as Yein is.

Minsoo’s the one who asks Yein first, while they’re waiting for their food. “Should we drop the honorifics?” He suggests, and it seems like such a huge step (when it’s not) that Yein has to think about it for a while. He thinks about how his name would sound coming out of Minsoo’s mouth (“Yein-ah!” He imagines Minsoo saying, and then he has to hold himself back from suddenly smiling), and he thinks about how Minsoo’s name would sound if he just called him Minsoo. He thinks of Minsoo’s response, and then Yein’s biting his lips to suppress his smile, and nods.

“Sure,” and Minsoo smiles at him, eyes crunching up and cheeks red.

“Yein-ah,” he says, and Yein’s heart  _ races. _ He feels like he forgot how to breathe. But he takes a deep breath, and he calls out Minsoo’s name.

“Minsoo-ya,” and Minsoo’s laughing, embarrassed, ears red to the tips. It’s nothing much. But Yein feels like it’s such a big deal because they’d never really dropped the polite, honorific speech with each other all this time—despite knowing that they’re the same age.

They don’t really say anything to each other after that, because Yein doesn’t know how to start a conversation, even though he really wants to. So he lets Minsoo ask questions one by one until their conversation naturally flows, and before they know it, they’re munching on their food  _ and _ talking. Yein thinks this is as comfortable as he’ll get on a date with someone as handsome as Minsoo. He feels so,  _ so _ happy that he could cry, and his cheeks hurt from smiling too much.

Minsoo also smiles the whole time. It’s cute, and adorable, and Yein thinks he’ll never get over the way Minsoo laughs, either—the way his face scrunches up and the way he always covers his face with both of his hands. The more Yein sees it, the more he wants to _keep_ _seeing it._

As much as they don’t want to, though, the night has to end. Yein has to wake up early and go back to baking tomorrow morning. Minsoo has to go back to his cafe manager duties—which he had completely abandoned to run away on a date with Yein.

“Won’t your boss be mad?” Yein had asked, a bit concerned, but Minsoo just laughed and brushed it off.

“I told you, he could never fire me. Plus, he’ll survive.”

The drive back home was filled with more chatter and laughter, and honestly, Yein can tell that Minsoo was driving really slowly to drag out the time. Yein even directs him around the block so they could get an extra five minutes. But of course, they have to let it end, so as soon as the car’s parked and they’re both standing in front of the car while Minsoo waits for his call taxi, Yein hesitates before nudging Minsoo’s hands.

He doesn’t expect what Minsoo does next. He holds Yein’s hands, and Yein can’t help the blush that appears on his cheeks, all the way up to his ears. His hands are warm, and as Minsoo squeezes it, he says, “We’ll see each other tomorrow morning, right?”

Yein nods.

“I’ll help you in the kitchen,” Minsoo continues, “and we can spend some extra time together. Maybe you can teach me how to bake something.”

Yein laughs and nods again. “Really? Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise. I’ll try not to be too sleepy,” Minsoo jokes, and Yein pouts. A part of him feels bad, because he realizes Minsoo’s going to spend precious resting time just to bake with him. The other part, though, is excited because Minsoo  _ wants to spend time with him. _ As childish as that sounds.

Minsoo laughs at Yein’s pouty face and leans down, face centimeters away from Yein’s. Yein doesn’t move, though. He holds his breath. He waits for Minsoo to close the gap, but Minsoo just stays there for a while, smiles, and asks, “Yein-ah, can I kiss you?”

Yein, too shocked to say anything, just nods and closes his eyes. Minsoo giggles, and then he pecks Yein’s nose, and then his lips, and then he pulls away, laughing. Yein laughs, too. His heart is beating so fast he’s sure Minsoo will be able to hear it, and he’s not even sure he can sleep tonight—it feels like he just drank three cups of coffee in one go. Minsoo’s squeezing his hands, and just like a perfectly timed movie, his taxi pulls up. Minsoo reluctantly lets go of their hands (because Yein refuses to), and just like any other time they’ve had to say goodbye at night, he says, “See you tomorrow morning?”

“See you tomorrow morning.”

—

Seon Yein is a baker.

Here is a day in the life of Seon Yein: Yein starts his day early. He wakes up at 2 in the morning, and washes his face. He changes into his Baking Outfit, and gathers all the stuff he wants to bring to the bakery today from his kitchen, like his sourdough starter babies (5 year old Tenney, and 1 year old Youl) which he would never, EVER leave at the bakery for various safety reasons.

By 2:30, he should be ready to go, and by 3, he should be arriving at his bakery.

His bakery’s a small little shop, many blocks away from his apartment building. Next to it is a cafe that opens after his shop closes, and closes right as Yein arrives at the bakery. Today, too, at 3 AM, he sees the cafe next door’s manager, Go Minsoo, cleaning up his cafe. Lifting chairs, sweeping, taking out the trash, pulling down the shutter.

This is Yein’s favorite part of his day. When he gets out of his car to open the bakery, and Go Minsoo has just locked the doors to his cafe and is getting off work.

“Good morning, love” Yein always says with a small smile, and Minsoo would always smile back and greet him, as well. Minsoo would give him his morning kiss and a lunch box filled with Yein’s breakfast that he’d cooked himself. Sometimes, he stays and helps Yein open the shop. He now knows Yein’s oven settings, and he knows how to arrange the empty baskets on the shelves in the bakery. Yein still hasn’t trusted him with any recipes yet, though, but he’s getting there. On the days when he’s not there to stay, he’d give Yein one more kiss after Yein gives him his leftover cookie-filled goodie bag, say “see you later,” and hop in his car. Yein would watch his car until it disappears around the corner.

And then Yein starts work. He turns on all the lights, preheats his ovens, starts preparing all the dough, starts baking, and before he knows it, it’s 6 AM and it’s time to open. He takes a 10 minute break to eat his breakfast. He heats it up, and makes sure to properly clean the container afterwards. Minsoo always tries to cook something different for him everyday, and he appreciates it. He knows how hard it is to come up with something new everyday, and he knows how tiring it must be to have to cook something at the end of a long shift. He’s always thankful. And then at 6:15, his first customer would usually come in—Noh Sooil, an office worker who works just down the street and always gets the same thing every morning: two chocolate croissants and a cheesy garlic bread (he says it’s for lunch).

His first part time worker, Gyujin, comes in at 7, just when it starts to get busy. He works until 12, when the second part time worker, Hwanhee, would come in. Yein gets to take his lunch break during the shift change, when Gyujin’s finishing up his shift and Hwanhee’s just starting his. It’s about a 10 minute window when Minsoo would drop off another meal. In exchange, Yein would make him his favorite iced americano, and they would both take their short breaks together.

Hwanhee only works until 4 PM. The last part time worker, Dongyeol, comes in at just a little before 4, and always forces Yein to take a break during that time so he can work with Hwanhee (because Dongyeol is  _ finally _ dating Hwanhee). Dongyeol stays until closing time—7:30 PM, sometimes 7 if they run out of stuff—and helps Yein close up the store and go through inventory and restocking ingredients for Yein to bake the next morning.

By 8, he’ll be waving Dongyeol home, and then, he’ll be seeing the cafe next door’s manager, Minsoo, again.

This is Yein’s second favorite part of his day. Minsoo would be standing outside his cafe and writing on the chalkboard “OPEN MIC 8PM - 1 AM”, and Yein would be closing his shop. Yein would say, again, “hello,” and Minsoo would say it back to him.

Yein would return Minsoo’s lunch box to him, and Minsoo would steal a kiss or two. He’ll offer Yein some dinner, and Yein would come inside the cafe to have dinner. They’ll talk and laugh and Yein would be saying goodbye to around 9. It’ll be around 9:30 by the time he gets home. He’ll take a shower, do some chores, and by 10, he’s already asleep.

Sundays are his off days. So on Saturdays, instead of leaving the cafe at 9, he’d leave a little later than usual. Sometimes, when it’s not too busy, Jinhyuk lets Minsoo ditch the cafe to go home early and spend the rest of the night with Yein. Sometimes Minsoo stays the night at Yein’s apartment. They always spend all of Sunday together—except for when Minsoo has to go to the cafe for his lunch shift. And then, in the evening, before Minsoo has to start his dinner shift at the cafe, they’d get dinner together. Always a different restaurant every time.

Today, too, after they enjoyed their dinner at a small restaurant inside of a busy night market, Yein and Minsoo stand in front of their cars. Minsoo has to go to the cafe now, while Yein has to go home and rest before starting his day early the next day. Minsoo gives Yein a hug and a kiss goodbye, and as they both pull away, Minsoo says,

“See you tomorrow morning?”

Yein nods and smiles. “See you tomorrow morning.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading... i'm gonna cry


End file.
